Attorney General is getting closer to deal on the INL cleanup agreement

After years of work an agreement may finally be reached between the Department of Energy and the Idaho Attorney General concerning two hundred pounds of controversial spent fuel being allowed on the Idaho National Laboratory site.

Thursday the state attorney general spoke to the Idaho Falls City Club. At the meeting he explained why he will not allow the spent fuel to come onto the site until the Department of Energy fulfills it’s part of the 1995 cleanup agreement.

During his talk, he mentioned that as of nine days ago the DOE was ‘finally’ talking to him about some progress on cleaning up 900,000 gallons of liquid waste.

“I have attempted to get the Doe to engage in meaningful conversation about this since January. That when they first notified me of this…but they have not done that. There has been discussion but not engagement of the two breach problems they created,” said Attorney General Lawrence Wasden. “I finally within the last week or ten days have been able to get them to have a conversation. Maybe we can reach some sort of an agreement to make both parties happy…maybe we can’t. I don’t know…but I’m hopeful that the Department of Energy will come to the table…they have the proper people there authorized to resolve the issue…I’m hoping that we can get some sort of resolution.”

Also in the audience at City Club Thursday was the new director of the INL. Doctor Mark Peters is well briefed on the spent fuel controversy, and he says he’s very optimistic something will be worked out.

“It was a great conversation. We agreed to work together from here forward in a very transparent way. I’m going to visit with him in his office in a couple weeks and hear his perspectives. He talked about his commitment to nuclear energy and more importantly to the mission of the INL. I heard that and I have to be optimistic,” says Peters. “From the perspective of the commitment of the mission, but also the fact the settlement agreement that its one of the components of the settlement agreement is the lab itself. Again I just remain optimistic. I’m also pleased about the discussion that are happening with the DOE..We finally got to the point where they’re talking to each other…or they’re visiting with him and so i’m very pleased by that. So regardless what happens over the next week or few days Uh I think if we keep doing that…It’ll be good for the long-term.”